this is bbc news. i'm clive myrie. the headlines at 11pm: jeremy corbyn has told supporters he isn't wedded to the idea of keeping freedom of movement for eu citizens during brexit negotiations. record numbers of nhs patients in england have faced long waits in a&e departments. a white supremacist has been sentenced to death for shooting dead nine black church—goers in the us state of south carolina. president obama is heading to chicago where he's due to deliver his farewell address to the american nation. and on newsnight tonight, donald trump's son—in—law will be in pole position in the white house but what are his politics? and should the late carrie fisher be inserted into a new star wars film with the help of cgi, or is there something distasteful about resurrecting the dead on—screen? good evening and

welcome to bbc news. jeremy corbyn has been accused by some of his own mps of creating confusion after declaring that labour was not wedded to freedom of movement for eu citizens and then adding that he wasn't ruling it out either. the labour leader insisted that the party did understand voters‘ concerns about immigration. earlier, mr corbyn had prompted further criticism from his own side when he suggested that capping earnings would be a way to tackle inequality. our political editor laura kuenssberg has more details. a welcome for him on the platform, but will you welcome what was billed as his vision for britain after brexit? whether you voted to leave or remain, everybody voted for a better future. on the biggest question — how many eu citizens can keep coming to britain to move freely,

what was his verdict? we're not wedded to free movement of the eu as a point of principle, but i don't want to be misinterpreted, nor do we rule it out. we'll demand that these negotiations give us the power to intervene decisively, to prevent workers from here or abroad being used and exploited to undermine pay and conditions at work. the original version of his speech had suggested freedom of movement might be ditched, but instead, he wants to tighten up rules at work that allow foreign workers to be exploited. does that mean that you would like to see more or fewer people from other parts of the european union coming to the uk? it probably means there would be fewer, but i think we should also recognise that there is a massive contribution made to our health service, education and manufacturing industry by people from all over europe. you say the word "probably be fewer" people coming here, by how many? what kind of reduction? i can't put a figure on it because we haven't yet seen the work that has to be done.

isn't this a question of principle, though, really? about the kind of levels that you're happy with? the principle has to be that employers should not be allowed to tear up existing arrangements in the construction industry or other industries. we've asked you previously whether or not you think the levels are too high and you said that you don't think the levels are too high, have you changed your mind? no. my mind is quite clear that we need to end the exploitation that's going on. we need to maintain a market access within europe and we need to ensure there are good relations between all communities. but do you or do you not want to end the wide principle of freedom of movement? i want us to have market access in europe. i want us to have trade with europe and let's... and that means continuing with freedom of movement? erm, let's see what comes out of these negotiations. mr corbyn was in peterborough, a town whose face has been changed by immigration. the kind of place where labour mps worry their leader's approach does them no favours. immigration has been good for peterborough, but the amount of immigration has not been good for peterborough. a lot of foreigners are quite nice, but the island can't cope with them,

the system can't cope. i find labour quite confusing. i don't really understand what their issues are. but mr corbyn hopes he might have more appeal on how we earn our pounds and pence, far from party policy yet, but income limits could be on the way. i think you have to look at each company and say — well, is it really right that the chief executive should earn 100 or more times than those who are actually doing the work that are keeping that company going? either you do a cap or you look at the levels of disparity within organisations. after being expected to change direction today, in the end, the labour leader more or less stayed on—the—spot. you turned around twice there! for his supporters, it's sticking to principles that makes him their hero. for many of his mps, it's stubbornness that means the party could be doomed to fail. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. labour's international trade spokesman, barry gardiner,

has been explaining more about the party's immigration policy. the policy on free movement is we wa nt the policy on free movement is we want people to come to this country who can improve our economic growth, who can improve our economic growth, who can improve our economic growth, who can give us morejobs and who can improve our economic growth, who can give us more jobs and better jobs in this country. we want to make sure that the people who are coming here only come here when they're benefiting the people who actually live in the uk primarily and not just for the actually live in the uk primarily and notjust for the benefit of those who want to come here. now, thatis those who want to come here. now, that is immigration controls which are fair, they are reasonable management of migration that we want to see. obviously free movement of people is something that is a principle for the other 27 countries that they have always tied to the single market. what labour's said today is, look, we're not wedded to three movement of people, we're wedded to good jobs and a good economy for the people already here in britain. if that means people

coming from abroad to help us do that, great, but it has to be on our terms and for our benefit. 50 it has to be on our terms so there are going to be controls, labour believes there should be controls on the free movement of people from the eu? let me be clear, we not the government, we are not in negotiations with the other 27 eu countries and it's those negotiations that will determine what the outcome of free movement is. what does labour want? control, do you want controls? we want to make sure the controls are exactly asi make sure the controls are exactly as i said, it's that they work for the benefit of the people already in this country, that they create wealth and jobs for us and that is something that... you know, you look at the way in which the government over the past 60 years when theresa may was actually the home secretary, they said we are going to get immigration into this country down into the tens of thousands. in fact, immigration today is now at the

highest levels ever and nobody in the media seems to be asking theresa may, look, how come you're now saying you're going to tackle immigration, what are the controls you're going to put in place that you're going to put in place that you didn't do for the past six yea rs ? another set of official nhs figures seen by the bbc show that so far this year tens of thousands of patients in england have waited hours on trolleys before being admitted to hospital. this winter is proving one of the busiest on record for accident and emergency departments. but the health secretaryjeremy hunt has insisted that most of england's hospitals are coping well. our health editor hugh pym has more details. a 92—year—old patient at one hospital a&e unit today. i've been lying here so long, itjust hurts. an ageing population, one factor behind rising patient demand. here it's even more hectic than usual with an astonishing 20% more patients than this time last year. they're urging people to stay away and seek care elsewhere if their health problem isn't urgent. the beginning of january

is always a busy time, and it's much busier than this time last year. i think we will make it through the winter, but it is going to be really hard for us. since christmas, the nhs has been under immense pressure with some of the busiest ever days in hospitals. the bbc has obtained internal nhs figures revealing the scale of the pressure and problems in england last week, including numbers of patients lying on trolleys for hours at a time because beds weren't available. the figures cover the seven—day period ending yesterday morning and come from 131 hospital trusts in england. they show that a85 people waited longer than 12 hours on trolleys over that week, whereas only 158 patients faced those long waits in the whole of january last year. last week, only one hospital trust hit the target of assessing 95% of a&e patients within four hours.

and more than half of trusts failed to see even 80%. the health secretary, jeremy hunt, hinted yesterday the four—hour target might be changed to cover urgent cases only. are you going to explain to the public what your intention is? earlier, mr hunt said some a&es had very serious problems but, according to service leaders, most had coped better than last year. there were warnings, though, from one expert that there were no easy solutions. over the last 30 years we've reduced the number of beds to about half and we've increased the number of admissions to about double and so it's a sort of reaching a crisis situation, i would say. the trolley wait data in scotland, wales and northern ireland are not directly comparable to england. an nhs source said the figures obtained by the bbc didn't cover all hospitals, but there was unprecedented patient demand. pressure on social care services and a shortage of mental health

crisis care are among factors stretching a&e services harder than ever before. hugh pym, bbc news. there has been a steep rise in the number of people arriving at a&e departments in england with mental health problems, figures show. data compiled for the bbc by nhs digital showed that between 2011—12 and 2015—16, the number of patients attending a&e units with psychiatric problems rose by nearly 50% to 165,000. for the under 18s alone the numbers almost doubled to nearly 22,000. ajury in charleston, south carolina, has condemned a man to death for the racist killing of nine black men and woman in a church shooting in june 2015. dylan roof had told a sentencing hearing that he felt he had to carry out the killings. thejury had an option to sentence roof to life imprisonment but instead chose the death penalty.

in the next few hours, after eight years in the white house, president obama will give a farewell speech. during his time in office, he had contended with a global financial crisis and syria's descent into war. he's also been frustrated by political stalemate at home. our correspondent laura trevelyan is in chicago. what are we expecting, laura? clive, you can see behind me the crowds are flooding into this lakeside convention centre eager to hear what barack obama convention centre eager to hear what ba rack obama has convention centre eager to hear what barack obama has to say in his closing address to the nation. this is where it all began for him where he came as a community organiser and this is where he claimed victory in chicago in 3008 so it is fitting he should choose this town for his farewell address. people i've been talking to will hope that the president will reassure them, an area of anxiety for democrats as they worry about what donald trump will bring and whether he can repeal

obama's legacy as he is promising to do. the white house says this speech will be beyond politics, he will reflect what he has learned in his eight years in politics and offer some hunters to confront the challenges ahead, which is code for dealing with president—elect donald trump. —— pointers. people eagerto hear from such trump. —— pointers. people eagerto hearfrom such a trump. —— pointers. people eagerto hear from such a revered figure who they now people coming here tonight see as someone historic in their own lifetimes. indeed. any idea what he's going to do when he stands down, he only has ten days left before mr trump takes over, what's he going to be doing? he's going to work on building his presidential library, which will be here on the south side of chicago but he's also indicated he will play a role in a group called you're brother's keeper, trying to provide role models for young black men, because barack obama is very concerned, especially in chicago, where over

700 people were murdered in chicago last year, many young black men among them, he is concerned about their plight, he feels he has something to offer and this is a charity he will devote himself to. people tonight hoping he doesn't step off the national stage, the precedent is that when someone goes in as president you lie low, that's what george bush did for barack obama, people are hoping he will retain a role on the national political stage. thanks very much, laura, live from chicago. hundreds of thousands of commuters in the south of england have struggled to get to and from work today because of the latest strike by southern rail staff. the dispute, which has been going on for nearly ten months, is about staffing duties on trains. the unions say they're trying to protect the safety of passengers and crew. our transport correspondent richard westcott reports from east croydon. paralysed by a strike, again.

more than 2,200 southern services weren't running today. announcer: platform two for the delayed 0747 thameslink service. their passengers were forced to find other routes in. the whole situation seems like a complete joke. i'd like to know that when i get on the train, that i'm going to end up at my destination at a certain time. well, this is the queue just to get into east croydon station, all of these people are trying to get to london, it's about 8.45am, commuter time. about 8:45am, commuter time. that's the start of the queue there. it snakes around a lot, then actually goes down the side of the station, probably about 100 metres or so, down that way. for nearly a year, they've been rowing about changes to the role of the onboard guard. southern wants drivers to take over closing the train doors. the unions say that threatens safety and jobs. southern says no—one's losing their post and the safety regulator is happy with the changes. there's no sign of a breakthrough. this is the body shops new £1 million lab in croydon.

they moved hundreds of staff here last year because of the great train service, but southern's drivers aren't working overtime at the moment, causing delays and cancellations every single day. it's having a devastating effect on the body shops staff. they're missing children's birthdays, they can't arrange meetings, they're having arguments at home. they're feeling stressed, tired and irritable and there's a number of people saying every day, from about apm, they're sitting getting more and more stressed about whether they're going to get home, at all, or on time for the commitment they've got that night. back on board, several commuters said this. i mean, the government need to do something about it. you know, it's ridiculous. so the bbc put the question to the minister. reporter: what are you, as transport secretary, doing about it though? don't you have a duty to step in on behalf... the government's engaged day in and day out in trying to find